Voice Creative's Blog

Toward Superior Copy, and Outrageous Results

Is it possible to charge your advertising clients more and still save them money? Absolutely! In a few steps you can raise your rates and provide more leads per client dollar. It starts with:

Personnel – you've got to have the team to get results. Some people are better face-to-face sellers, some are better on-air entertainers, and some are better staring out the window concocting a listenable, compelling, emotionally driven story for an ad that gets results for each client.

You should not give the client what they want, you should give them what they need.

They need a focused commercial that will deliver results. They do not need an ego trip stuffed with sale items, their Facebook page, phone number and address, or pretend discounts. They need a relatable commercial focused on a single thought/item. And separate commercials for each additional thought or item.

I abhor clichés, especially in radio copy. They are lazy. "For all your toe shoe needs," "sale ends soon," "the tent is up, the prices are down." Ick. I know I'm not alone, 'cause audiences mentally tune out at these trite idiocies. Where's the inspiration? Where's the motivation? Why are we wasting our time writing, producing and listening to these?

Why pay someone else to create your advertising? The most obvious reason is you have your business to run. The most important reason, though, is you are not your customer. Whoa, a powerful truth: You Are Not Your Customer.

I have an addiction. That's the first step toward healing, right, admit you have an addiction? I have an addiction. It was made plain a couple days ago when my router died. I am addicted to the Internet and my email. I listen to radio station streams, I enjoy Pandora, I scan the news and sports pages every couple of hours and sometimes have Alexa play me a newscast. I'll even open an online encyclopedia, then type a single letter in the search box just to see what comes up, then read an entry at random. Hey - maybe my addiction is not the Internet, but information.

Ever pay sticker price for a car? Of course not. Over time the auto dealers have taught us to wait for a “tent sale”, a “President’s Day sale”, a “Bottom Line Blowout sale”. Just like the big chain department stores are doing – Macy’s big sale Saturday with pre-view day Friday. Kohl’s one day Saturday sale. They are teaching us to wait ‘til Saturday where they cut their margin and their ability to stay in business (remember Montgomery Ward?).

I have never been a fan of ‘testing’ radio. “Tell ‘em Jack sent ya” just doesn’t provide a listener with incentive to visit the business and announce “Jack sent me”, and leads to “I tried radio and it didn’t work.”

"Frameline Magnetism". That's what Norman Rockwell called it. Some call it closure. It is the human ability to fill in the blanks of a picture. We paint pictures with words, so leave a few blanks and the listener will fill them in, and in so doing will make the image you paint with words and sound their own unique vision. And this personal vision can help keep your product/service/station top-of-mind.

"No Budget" is an excuse. Humans don't like hurting other peoples feelings. Would it be easier if they came out and said "I don't think you can help me"? Sure. But you can get past the "No Budget" objection.
First: remember a budget is only a guideline of expected expenses versus expected revenues, as assigned to specific item categories (electric, salary, advertising, postage, insurance etc). While it is a document written with sweat and toil, it is not a document written in blood. A budget is living, breathing, and most important: flexible. So…

A while back "Inside Radio" (10/11/2012) quoted ZipCar CEO Scott Griffith on why they stopped advertising on the radio: “We did see a lift in awareness — we measured it before and after — but that didn’t convert into membership.” Wait, what? You dropped radio ‘cause it worked like it was supposed to? Obviously the creative was effective, ZipCar admits it saw a lift in awareness. All advertising can ever do is raise awareness, advertising cannot turn listeners into your clients, that is up to the business.